OU, OSU, TU included on best graduate schools list

Three Oklahoma universities are among the hundreds of institutions nationwide ranked in the 2019 U.S. News Best Graduate Schools report issued Tuesday.

The U.S. News & World Report data and rankings are designed to be one factor graduate school applicants can use to find the program that best fits their needs.

For the U.S. News rankings of graduate

engineering programs, 199 engineering schools were weighed overall and in specialties.

The University of Oklahoma is one of nine schools ranked 97. It had a 2017 graduate engineering enrollment of 740. Oklahoma State

University is one of five schools ranked 111. It's enrollment was 611. The

University of Tulsa's program, with an enrollment of 237, is one of six ranked 116.

TU ranked 4 and OU ranked 7 nationally in petroleum engineering, while OSU ranked 16 in biological/agricultural engineering.

J. Mike Stice, dean of the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy at OU, said plans to grow enrollment at the college include a larger percentage of graduate students.

"It's the graduate students that make the college," Stice said. They give the faculty more resources when it comes to research and effective teaching, he said.

With the higher percentage of graduate students, OU can be the No. 1 petroleum engineering school in the country, Stice said.

OSU and OU both ranked in several other engineering specialties — aerospace, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, industrial and mechanical.

TU also ranked in chemical engineering and OU in environmental engineering.

Business, law, medicine

U.S. News ranked 127 full-time MBA programs. OU is one of two programs ranked 76 and OSU is one of five ranked 95. The 2017 fulltime enrollment was 79 at OU and 80 at OSU.

Part-time business programs play a vital role for working people who can't go to school full time because of family or financial reasons, the U.S. News report states.

OU is one of four parttime MBA programs ranked 60. OSU is one of 10 ranked 101. TU is one of eight ranked 179. Enrollment in the parttime programs in 2017 was 127 at OU, 86 at OSU and 48 at TU.

The University of Tulsa is one of five schools ranked 101 in the U.S. News rankings of 194 law schools. TU had a 77 percent bar passage rate.

U.S. News ranked 124 institutions for Best Medical Schools for Research. OU is one of two schools ranked 82. The enrollment in 2017 was 650.

Graduate school rankings also are reported for education, nursing, social work, public affairs, criminology and sciences. Go online to www.usnews.com/ best-graduate-schools for the complete report and rankings.